Ever heard about "Virtual Water"?
I recently started having to think about a topic called Virtual Water. It is a way to assess how much water a country needs to be "sustainable" especially in terms of its food supply. It tries to illustrate the idea that when goods and services are exchanged, so is virtual water. Japan in particular imports a lot of foods.
Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment here have brought up the subject.
MOFA takes the position that since Japan imports food, the country "actively assists the water supply of developing countries, including drinking water and agricultural water."
That is only partly true, since most of Japan's imports are from developed countries such as North America, South America and Australia.
MOE, however, takes a different approach. It understands the seriousness of the issue more in terms of how we as consumers here in Japan are influencing water supplies all over the world.
They even have a chart where you can calculate your virtual water, depending on what kind of foods you generally eat.
It is in Japanese, but do have a look here.
List of different foods and the Virtual Water impact (pdf).
For example:
Beef 20,600
Pork 5.900
Chicken 4,500
Eggs 3,200
Rice 3,700
Bread 1,600
Tomato 131
Cabbage 117
Unit: （m³/t）
Thus if you are currently heavily into beef, you may want to reconsider your daily shopping habits. Beef requires 6 or 7 times as much water compared to eggs: Chicken or eggs would be a better way to get your daily proteins.
Actually, the MOFA chart is peculiar since it doesn't make the connection that corn and soybeans are to a large extent used as animal feed for domestic animals here in Japan. Thus eating domestic beef or pork (or drinking milk) still means you are contributing to "Virtual Water". Complicated.
A UNESCO-sponsored website called Water Footprint notes that Japan has a footprint of 1150 cubic meter per year per person. The USA water footprint is about 2500 cubic meter per year per capita, considered highest in the world while the water footprint of China is about 700 cubic meter per year per capita.
And:
The production of one kilogram of beef requires 16 thousand litres of water.
The UNESCO world water footprint map shows average national water footprint per capita (m3/cap/yr).
Green means that a nation's water footprint is equal to or smaller than the global average. Countries with red have a water footprint beyond the global average (Period: 1997-2001). Looking at it from this perspective, Japan is actually doing better than most other developed countries - it is below average in terms of its water footprint.
Calculate your Water Footprint!
Your individual water footprint is equal to the water required to produce the goods and services consumed by you. Please take your time and feel free to use the extended water footprint calculator developed by the researchers at UNESCO-IHE to assess your own unique water footprint. The calculations are based on the water requirements per unit of product as in your country of residence.
Allright, that's me. "Stimulants" refers to my coffee habit, and as you can see, I like eggs (but I don't eat meat).
My total water footprint comes to 492 m³ water/year, less than the average of 1240 m³ water/person/year.
If you haven't heard about Virtual Water or Water Footprint, well, who shall we blame? The media? Your high school teacher? Me?
Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment here have brought up the subject.
MOFA takes the position that since Japan imports food, the country "actively assists the water supply of developing countries, including drinking water and agricultural water."
That is only partly true, since most of Japan's imports are from developed countries such as North America, South America and Australia.
MOE, however, takes a different approach. It understands the seriousness of the issue more in terms of how we as consumers here in Japan are influencing water supplies all over the world.
They even have a chart where you can calculate your virtual water, depending on what kind of foods you generally eat.
It is in Japanese, but do have a look here.
List of different foods and the Virtual Water impact (pdf).
For example:
Beef 20,600
Pork 5.900
Chicken 4,500
Eggs 3,200
Rice 3,700
Bread 1,600
Tomato 131
Cabbage 117
Unit: （m³/t）
Thus if you are currently heavily into beef, you may want to reconsider your daily shopping habits. Beef requires 6 or 7 times as much water compared to eggs: Chicken or eggs would be a better way to get your daily proteins.
Actually, the MOFA chart is peculiar since it doesn't make the connection that corn and soybeans are to a large extent used as animal feed for domestic animals here in Japan. Thus eating domestic beef or pork (or drinking milk) still means you are contributing to "Virtual Water". Complicated.
A UNESCO-sponsored website called Water Footprint notes that Japan has a footprint of 1150 cubic meter per year per person. The USA water footprint is about 2500 cubic meter per year per capita, considered highest in the world while the water footprint of China is about 700 cubic meter per year per capita.
And:
The production of one kilogram of beef requires 16 thousand litres of water.
The UNESCO world water footprint map shows average national water footprint per capita (m3/cap/yr).
Green means that a nation's water footprint is equal to or smaller than the global average. Countries with red have a water footprint beyond the global average (Period: 1997-2001). Looking at it from this perspective, Japan is actually doing better than most other developed countries - it is below average in terms of its water footprint.
Calculate your Water Footprint!
Your individual water footprint is equal to the water required to produce the goods and services consumed by you. Please take your time and feel free to use the extended water footprint calculator developed by the researchers at UNESCO-IHE to assess your own unique water footprint. The calculations are based on the water requirements per unit of product as in your country of residence.
Allright, that's me. "Stimulants" refers to my coffee habit, and as you can see, I like eggs (but I don't eat meat).
My total water footprint comes to 492 m³ water/year, less than the average of 1240 m³ water/person/year.
If you haven't heard about Virtual Water or Water Footprint, well, who shall we blame? The media? Your high school teacher? Me?
Comments
Virtual pisser.
MOFA has had difficulties explaining Japan's ODA for a long time, maybe they simply don't understand it themselves.
Did you try to calculate your Water Footprint?
I had an idea in the shower this morning... Over the last several years, a lot of people have been retiring and moving out to my area from Tokyo. This is using up farmland for new homes and also putting a strain on water resources (we are on individual wells). In Hawaii, we bought water from the county, which got it from a huge aquifer under a mountain. To encourage conservation, they had a variable rate which increased dramatically as you used more.
So what about putting a meter on homes using an individual well? After all, the water is not simply coming from under the one house, it is a common resource which everyone draws from. The funds could be used for waste treatment and water purification projects and such (NOT roads). And the rates could be adjusted to discourage waste.
Some will say that would simply be another tax, but I say it would rightly charge a fee for a resource which belongs to all of us and which we should not allow to be wasted by giving it away without limit.
What do you think?
Possibly, there could be exceptions for the home-owners who have been living on the same land for a long time.